Sir Alex Ferguson is expecting Manchester United to drop title points in the run-in but says the Reds have to guard against complacency.

Southampton at Old Trafford might be regarded as a home banker with the Saints making the transition from the shock end to Nigel Adkins’ era 13 days ago to new St Mary’s coach Mauricio Pochettino.

But Fergie says all matches must be treated in the same manner.

“Teams will drop points (in the title race). Not just us but Manchester City will drop points, absolutely, it’s a certainty,” said Sir Alex.

“Chelsea and Arsenal will drop points. We’ll probably drop two or three ourselves but the important thing is accepting the challenge that every game is just as difficult as the rest.”

Former Espanyol coach Pochettino is an unknown to Fergie but the Spaniard opened his Southampton career with a 0-0 home draw against Everton.

“I don’t know a lot about him to be honest but I will have a chat with my brother (Martin) as he’s been scouting in Spain,” added Fergie.

“It won’t matter in this particular game as he’s just at the club but they had a fantastic response against Everton.

“They should have won as they were superb and could have been five up in the first half. Tim Howard had a fantastic game (in goal for Everton), they hit the woodwork and Rickie Lambert missed a couple of chances.

“They played really well against Everton, who are at the top of their game and playing really well.

“So we’re not taking anything for granted. We’ve got Southampton, then we go to Fulham and then it’s Everton at home. These are big games, massive games.”

Ferguson was as stunned as everyone else when Adkins was given the bullet after engineering two successive promotions for the Saints and beginning to stabilise them in the Premier League.

“I spoke to him the day before he was sacked,” Sir Alex said.“He phoned me about his situation there. I mean I can’t understand these things.

“I think their form had picked up. Was it two defeats in 12 games? That’s not bad for a team at the bottom of the league.

“The game prior to losing his job, they were 2-0 down to Chelsea but they came back and got a draw. Arsenal had the same situation and got to 2-1 but couldn’t quite get the second goal. The task of getting back at Chelsea on their home ground when you’re 2-0 down is pretty impressive.”